affreca

From Portland Syrup
Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp Lavender Syrup
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp dried culinary lavender (optional)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
Add the Lavender Syrup and beat until fully incorporated.
In a separate bowl, sift the flour and salt (and dried lavender, if using). Add gradually to the butter mixture and mix just until a dough forms — do not overmix.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth. Roll to about ¼-inch thick.
Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and place on the prepared sheet, leaving a little space between each. Sprinkle with extra sugar if you like.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are lightly golden.
Cool on the sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

One of the latest quick sale produce hauls was a bag of shallots. I've been meaning to try quick pickle onions, but I rarely have red onions in the house. It was tasty enough yesterday, so writing it down while I remember

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white sugar
1/4 cup boiling water
2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallot (1.5 medium sized ones)

Add salt, sugar and boiling water to small jar, stir to dissolve. Add vinegars to jar, stir and then add shallots. Let cool on counter for 30 minutes and enjoy.

2 spoons Irish Breakfast tea
200 g boiling water
200 g milk
30 g black tapioca bubbles
20 g rose syrup

Make tea with 200 g of boiling water and black tea, let steep for 5-10 minutes. Microwave milk in drinking cup for 1 minute. Bring more water to boil in small pot, and add bubbles when at a roiling boil. When the bubbles float, cover and cook for 4 minutes. Then turn off stove and let cook for an additional 4 minutes. Strain, add to cold water for 20 seconds, strain again and add to syrup. Froth milk, add tea and bubble to drinking cup. Stir with straw and enjoy.

For cold version, brew tea a few hours before, skip microwave and frothing milk, add ice.

Lawnchair bought me discounted hazelnut pieces, so after looking at all sorts of national hazelnut cookies (German, Italian and Balkan) I settled on chocolate hazelnut cookies. Only major change was added some instant coffee powder. I used a teaspoon from a bag labeled "coffee + sugar" left over from a couple of years ago when I was trying to make an instant coffee blend that I liked for backpacking. My current coffee solution for backpacking/kayaking is Maxim mocha from the Korean grocery, but that changes based on what I can find.

The cashew butter cookies are good, but these are better. I plan to make some once I get done with planned travel. Posting so I can find again. Original recipe

1 3/4 cups [230g] flour
1/2 tsp [2.5g] baking soda
1 1/2 cups [240g] chocolate chips
1 stick [115g] salted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup [100g] granulated sugar
1/2 cup [100g] brown sugar
1/2 tsp [3g] salt
1 large egg [50g]
1/2 cup [125g] tahini
1 tsp [5g] vanilla extract
2/3 cup [90g] sesame seeds

Combine the flour and baking soda in a medium mixing bowl. Add in the chocolate chips into the dry ingredients.

Beat the butter, sugar, brown sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for about 2 minutes, until a little lighter and fluffier. Scrape down the sides, and add the egg, tahini, milk, and vanilla. Beat at medium-high speed until silky-smooth and lighter in color (about 1 minute).

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix at low speed just until it all comes together. Stop mixing once it’s combined.

Fridge the dough for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Shape the dough into scant-1/4-cup blobs [50g]. Roll one between your hands until smooth, then roll in the sesame seeds, and then place on a prepared sheet pan. Gently press the dough ball’s top down slightly so it’s just a little flattened. Repeat with the remaining ones, leaving space between each cookie.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are set, but the centers aren’t completely set

I wanted tahini chocolate chip cookies and couldn't find any more tahini in the pantry (I'm blind, there were two more containers down there), so instead I searched for cashew butter chocolate chip cookies because I've been haunted by a jar on our shelves for a while. The recipe I found uses 3 times the amount of cashew butter than I have, but thankfully all the ingredients (including the egg) were easily divisible by 3. Bonus, I also only had 1/3 the recipe's amount of cashews. So here's the smaller version.

1 egg
1 cup cashew butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp table salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup cashews
Sprinkles of kosher salt

Whisk egg lightly in a small bowl. Add egg, cashew butter, brown sugar, baking soda and salt to stand mixer and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips and cashews. Preheat oven to 350 F, portion out large spoons of dough on lined baking sheet, sprinkle on kosher salt and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Edited to add
Original recipe

Backpacking mango sticky rice

1 cup instant jasmine rice / 1/3 cup
1/4 cup coconut milk powder / 4/3 tbsp
2 Tbsp. unsweetened coconut flakes / 2 tsp
3 Tbsp. cane sugar / 1 tbsp
3 oz. dried mango / 1 oz

Trying this recipe for Butternut Squash and Chicken. Planned alterations include: adding freshish rosemary and thyme because I have only one small sprig of sage, swapping 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar since I don't have any lemons, and using the instant pot because I don't want to make a sauce in the cast iron frying pan. Plan is to use the slow cooker instructions, but cook the chicken and squash for 12 minutes under pressure. Oh, and maybe crumble some goat cheese on top because I have it.

Trip was successful, with a lot of self reflection. I flew out to Seattle for WorldCon. As my friend S decided he couldn't afford to attend due to finances, I ended up rooming with a random conworker found through extended acquittance network. She was a good roommate, but didn't end up socializing with her or really anyone at the con. Still working on accepting that's just how I attend cons, and debating again if it's worth it.

Then caught up with a high school friend over dinner on Sunday night after the con. Which was good, but leaves me thoughts that I need start pushing family to discuss plans for dealing with aging parents.

Monday I went back to the airport to pick up a rental car for my 10 day camping/road trip. Added two more national parks to my visited list, and did a lot of hiking. One thing about experience is that I'm getting better about hiking uphill without bailing. I did bail on one uphill hike, but looking at the map it was a lot of elevation for not much to see and getting later in the day.

There's things I could have done differently if I did more research/planned (timed hike better for ferry ride, been able to float down river I camped next to), but successful. Saw pretty places (Nisqually glacier and Nisqually delta) and some new to me animals (sooty grouse and marmot). I rediscovered that I enjoy meeting and chatting with people while traveling. Most of my trips for the last decade plus have been work or with Tom, and I don't as much.

On the other hand, I'm happy to be home. The air smells right here. I like the smell of both the wet west and dry east parts of Washington, but it's not home. Also, it's screaming tree season back home.

It's been about two months since I quit my job. I haven't been good a motivation for physical things, but Lawnchair's bike training gets me out of the house, either to meet up with him in a different small town 20-30 miles out or taking the RV trailer out to a lake from which he can bike 60 mile loops and I can hike random 2-6 mile trails. I've been a bit better about going to fiber guild meetings, or Fiber evenings at L's studio. I did also manage to spend three days volunteering to teach middle and high school students how to measure surface water characteristics. And training to volunteer with local river NGO kayak trips, with the first I signed up for on Wednesday. That actually sounds like a lot...

Most of my actual time (that isn't internet surfing) is spinning. I blended and spun up 42 different one ounce yarns to make myself play with new color and fiber combinations. I learned a lot, but by the end of it I was running out of ideas (multiple attempts at blending orange and teal wool and getting unexpected results, including the time I made grey).

During that set of experiments, I took a class from L that inspired a new set of experiments. See, most of the color blending classes I've taken bring out the same color wheel - red blue yellow. L's was cyan magenta yellow, and one of the students asked why. While L couldn't answer, it stuck with me. I know printing inks are CMYB, but I never thought why. I know there's a different set of primary colors if you're adding lights, but.. 20 minutes of googling and I realize that my color theory education has holes.

So I decided to blend up RBY vs. CMY color wheels in wool fiber. I dyed four ounces of each color, and started making .5 ounce batts. I've done the primary, secondary and tertiary colors, and even did some cross wheel batts - blue/cyan, blue/magenta, red/magenta and red/cyan. Next up is some tints, tones and shades. Still deciding if I'm going to spin up the entire batt, or save a sample unspun. Maybe spin most of the batts, but tape a small bit of wool to a flashcard..

Useful, no.. but finding projects.

I finally had/took the time to develop a tasty couscous recipe to take backpacking.

1/4 tsp Ras El Hanout (version from local grocery coop)
1/2 tsp chicken bullion powder
2 tsp coconut milk powder
2 tsp dried onions
2 tbsp almond slices
2 tbsp dried cherries
3 tbsp dehydrated vegetables (with peas removed because they don't rehydrate well)
1/2 cup couscous

1 cup boiling water
1 sausage (sliced)

Mix everything except water and sausage. Boil water, wait 5 or so minutes, add sausage and eat.

I started a physical recipe book, so I'll copy these down at some point. Hopefully before link rot sets in.

Hungarian goulash - https://eatingeuropean.com/hungarian-goulash/

Smashed Potatoes - https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/213492/smashed-potatoes/ - used hoisin sauce

Mexican casserole, need to try first - https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/20680/easy-mexican-casserole/

Going to have to go back to checklists. Forgot to pack both my lunch and work ID for my work trip. Lawnchair is sending my card to the hotel, because I can't access my work email or computer without it.

Otherwise, travel went well, only a half hour flight delay.

Somehow I feel like I used my vacation day productively, though not sure it is justified on analysis. Last night, I realized left my wallet at the office. As I'm off on another work trip Sunday, I sort of need the wallet. So I needed to go in to get it. This morning, I realized I also left my work laptop in the office, so even more need to go in. I got up at my usual early time, but lazed about before driving into the city. I got a mile walk around the neighborhood in with Lawnchair before it got hot.

Reassuringly, both my laptop and wallet were in the office as expected. I decided to do an hour of work (dealing with money crap), and then the yarn store I've been meaning to check out would be open. Yarn store was cute and woke, but I wasn't thrilled enough with their fiber selection to buy any. Then decided to check out the used art supplies store. They had about four ounces of fiber, but not worth buying. Finally, I hit the Target on the way an buy out the last of the 18 gallon rubbermaid tubs they had (I need more for organizing the yarn and fiber in the library). A final stop to pick up prescription and I did more errands than a normal day off.

I do still need to pack for work travel. I'm volunteering at the river clean up tomorrow, and I suspect I will be hot, sweaty and tired by the time I get home.

I cast off my last travel socks this evening, and wound up the next yarn into a ball to start on this trip. I think I'm back to socks being so much more suitable for travel than any other knitting. Maybe hats, but it's to hot to get exciting about hat knitting.

Ingredients

280 g all purpose flour
100 g granulated sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 stick salted butter, frozen 113 grams

142 g sourdough starter discard
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract (or other flavoring)
45 grams milk

1 cup mix ins chocolate chips, blueberries, dried cranberries

In food processor, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and butter. In bowl, mix together sourdough starter discard, egg, extract and milk. Fold in dry ingredients and mix ins. Make scone piles on silicone baking mat on cookie sheet, cover with second baking mat, place in fridge for a few hours. Then move to freezer. Cook two at a time at 400 for 20 minutes.

Recipe based on https://www.farmhouseonboone.com/sourdough-scones

Adapted from this recipe, with alterations based on comments and my own tastes.

Filling
4 medium apples - peeled and cut into small pieces
3/4 pomegranate's seeds
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup brown sugar (could be decreased slightly, but needs to be brown)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
ground cloves and cardamon
~1/2 cup nuts (I used pistachios as that's what was in the house)

Topping
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter (soft)
(Might be worth doubling topping)

Mix filling ingredients in 9 x 13 greased casserole dish, and top with nuts. In a bowl, cut butter into other topping ingredients with a fork. Crumble bits over fillings. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes and eat.

Went to work in the office. Attempted to chat with coworkers, but wasn't terribly into it. How quickly I lose the habits. To be fair, I was barely in the office the last two months, so it isn't just the previous week of vacation. I was almost productive?

in today's aggravations. After thinking about it, I decided that I'd rather frog the hoody progress rather than keep contemplating the better construction idea that I'd had - starting at the top of the hood so I didn't have to pick up stitches on the neckline (though this will decrease structure at the neckline). I got 14 rows into that before I decided that I really wanted an i-cord edge on the hood. 8 rows into that, I decided to search for a way to minimize pulling on the i-cord edge, but that could be fixed going forward without frogging. For the last, I'm doing an extra slip three/knit three every four rows. I'm 18 rows in now.

Today is soup and bread day, so I'm ready for the work week tomorrow. My mistake with the soup is that because it's basic leftover turkey soup, I'm not following a recipe for amounts and I added to much garlic. I went online for suggestions other than add more stock to dilute it, and found the suggestion to add something creamy. Half a can of coconut milk, and it's a good soup now.

However, as I was focusing on my soup, I was not paying attention to my oven preheating. At 45 minutes in, it still had not reached 435 F. Or even 400 F. It did make it to 400, so it's partially working. I decided to bake it at what I had (yeast is on it's own schedule), and see. Worst case, I throw it out and go buy bread.

And still here. Job is going well. The last month and a half before winter vacation (i.e. use or loose vacation time), was a lot of travel. Which was fun, but I have a lot of overdue trip memos. I'm not sure my boss is putting my promotion to use yet, so hopefully I can get more projects out of her, before she retires in late February. I'm pretty good not applying for her position - I don't feel ready. I just don't want to learn how to deal with a new boss, but that's a working life.

I spent vacation spinning with minor knitting. Almost no house cleaning occurred, especially in the neglected library. The spinning fiber is still out of control, though I did find the stuff I wanted to spin. And I canceled my paradise box. I'll miss the randomness, but I'm better off spending the same amount from different suppliers each month (or buying less fiber, but I keep making more per diem than I eat). I also started knitting a hoody, though I just figured out how to make the hood without picking up stitches. Do I undo two days of work in order to try out my idea?

Outdoors stuff started on a good note this year - I went to the closest First Day Hike at a nearby state park. I also brought K and Lawnchair with me. 1+ mile in beautiful weather with a bajilion other people. I've got two backpacking trips on the Ozark trail mapped out, just have to find a good long weekend. I'd like to start section hiking it with the goal of doing the whole thing. It's no PCT or Appalachian, but it's a hell of lot closer.

Cats are still great. I look at the local shelter, but I really don't want to mess up the current dynamic. They like each other so much more than any other set I've lived with.

May everyone's 2023 be better than 2022.

Today was the last of my in house sampling work for the year. I was delayed a couple of weeks due to software issues, and found out the pump isn't working in the well I was supposed to sample. I had to rejigger plans, but still had a nice time dealing with the people in my old job. It turns out I do like training people, and if I train the regulators, they'll expect things to be the way I do them. And having faces for names helps since there's been so much turn over in the last few years.

Which means I have to go into the office tomorrow, to return equipment, scan receipts and water my plants. I was out yesterday working the election, so it's only one day this week.

I'm glad to be flying to see S. in Oakland on Friday, as we're getting winter tomorrow. The low tonight is supposed to be 67 (after a high in the 70s). Then we'll get to 70 in late morning, followed by crashing temperatures to a low of 24 tomorrow night. The forecast is then highs in the low 40s to lows in the low 20s.

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Recent Entries

Lavender Shortbread Cookies

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For Reference

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Two Months In

Backpacking Couscous

Recipes to copy down

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